food

The old El Pescador restaurant on the North Trail is finally getting a new tenant.

Bradenton Beach’s Wicked Cantina is opening a new location at 1603 N. Tamiami Trail, just north of 16th Street. The restaurant, which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, specializes in Austin-style Tex Mex tacos, enchiladas and fajitas. The menu also features angus burgers, fish selections and a full bar. The Sarasota restaurant will open this summer, according to Wicked Cantina’s Facebook page.

The old El Pescador site neighbors a Subway and is just south of the Sunshine Inn and Suites, Golden Star Chinese and a La Quinta Inn & Suites. The area is notably more urban than Wicked Cantina’s Bradenton Beach site, which has a view of the Gulf of Mexico.

Shari Rogers didn’t just get a pie business when she and her husband bought Caribbean Pie Co. last year. She got a Southwest Florida-rooted, mom-and-pop-style dessert legacy nearly three decades old.

After a couple years of Florida retirement, she and Jerry Rogers needed a new project and something to put their energy into. Now they’re making by hand key lime and coconut cream pies in a 1,500-square-foot industrial space and delivering them to more than a dozen retail spots and restaurants along the Gulf Coast.

The couple is producing 50 to 70 pies per day, and they’re doing it with the help of a single employee, Maryhope Frye.

“Everything is by hand, from scratch, and we do use our muscles,” Frye said. “And everything is small batch, which is amazing.”

Steve Smith launched the pie company in the late 1980s. From his tiny store at Beneva and Clark roads, Smith made pies from scratch and supplied events as large as the U.S. Open in New York, sending about 1,500 pies there in 1997. Eventually, he sold the company to Chris Mathews, and Mathews brought in the Rogerses as partners about a year ago.

They ended up taking over the whole company in December.

Shari Rogers has a degree in home economics but spent her career in academic counseling and administration. The couple, formerly from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, decided to retire to Sarasota after their first visit here. They bought a house here on a whim while they were on vacation, moved down and settled into retirement.

But Shari Rogers missed working, so she picked up a part-time job at Pastries by Design in Lakewood Ranch. That kept her busy until she and Jerry bought into Caribbean Pie Co. last year. Cooking was a natural fit for her. She’d never forgotten her home economics roots.

These kinds of mom-and-pop-style operations aren’t uncommon, said Linda Hoskins, executive director of the American Pie Council. It’s difficult to quantify how many actually exist, but many of them start out with a love for baking and a commercial oven. Some expand to a commercial space and a few staff members. The trick is growing at the right speed.

“They can get really successful, and then they face the problem of growing too soon,” Hoskins said.

And small companies, like Caribbean Pie Co., are competing with big-name bakeries that can put out 1,200 pies per minute, Hoskins said. There’s a balance to it, and Rogers has held on to the original recipes and the Florida ingredients that built the company’s reputation.

Caribbean Pie Co. has a Fresh From Florida designation from the state for supporting local agriculture. They use Florida ingredients when they can. Their Key West Lime Juice, naturally, comes from Key West, but other ingredients are locally sourced. Their condensed milk, for instance, comes from a local farm in Manatee County via Sutters Quality Foods in Sarasota.

That’s important to a lot of the local businesses that carry their pies, Shari Rogers said.

Slices of the pies have been on the menu and whole pies have been available to take out at Walt’s Fish Market and Restaurant on South Tamiami Trail in Sarasota since Justin Wolff, the general manager, started working there eight years ago.

The restaurant and market operates on the principle of supporting the local economy and small businesses, he said. They use Florida fish, crabs and produce whenever they can, and he said he can’t imagine using any other pie company. He sells about 60 slices of pie per day in season, and he has to keep cases of Caribbean Pie Co.’s products on hand during holidays. His customers are after authentic, Florida products, and the pies have gained a reputation at Walt’s over the years.

Consumers are increasingly moving away from buying strictly on the basis of bargains, said Kevin Cooper, president and CEO of the Greater Sarasota Chamber of Commerce. They’re more willing than they were a decade ago to spend more for something that supports the local economy.

“They want to feel part of the consumer process not only with what they’re purchasing but with where their money is going downstream,” Cooper said.

And as that demand has risen, smaller manufacturers have gotten smarter. There’s less fear in the market today that players like Caribbean Pie Co. can’t compete with larger, out-of-state manufacturers, Cooper said. As technology has improved, many of the smaller outfits have the same opportunity to bring a consistent product to retailers, even if they are doing it in a small way.

In Caribbean Pie Co.’s case, Jerry Rogers does all the deliveries himself twice a week. When he’s not in the kitchen, making pies, he’s running to places like Walt’s or as far as to Lucky’s Market in Naples. They can do 18 key lime pies at once. Coconut cream pies come in smaller batches of 12 and the new Nutella pie needs to be made six at a time to get their consistency right.

The couple has plans to expand, eventually.

They’ve already amped up their cold room, brought in a new freezer and added some more prep tables. Shari Rogers and Frye are experimenting with new recipes, too. They’ve made orange pies, and strawberry and chocolate pies for Valentine’s Day in addition to the Nutella variety.

They’ve added pecan and pumpkin pies around the holidays.

But they all have one ingredient in common.

“It’s handmade, and it’s as small-batch cooking as you can get in an area that’s not from your kitchen,” Frye said.

The restaurant reopened in its former location on Tamiami Trail earlier this month. The European chain known for its unique salad combinations and create-your-own salad bar closed in spring 2012 during a “company reorganization.” The Sarasota restaurant, which opened in July 2011, was a franchise and the company’s first location in the United States.

“We are a Polish-Austrian family and our major business is in Europe,” said Verna Jarczvnski, spokeswoman for the company. “We had a big project going on there, so Jeff’s had been closed in the meantime. We have modified the concept but the idea is basically the same – fresh and healthy food that is quick to get but not fast food.”

Doors reopened to customers at the 141 S. Tamiami Trail location last week.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

In February, Sweetbay closed 33 stores, or 30 percent of its locations in Florida, which included four in Sarasota and Manatee counties. There are 10 Sweetbay stores that are still open in Southwest Florida.

It’s no question that Sweetbay has struggled in recent years to compete with Publix, which dominates the grocery scene in Florida. The Lakeland-based chain has expanded into new markets this year too, like Tennessee and North Carolina. Walmart has also aggressively opened more supercenter and neighborhood markets in Florida recent years.

Even after a multimillion-dollar renovation nearly a decade ago, Sweetbay Supermarkets fought to keep customers who complained about poor quality and high prices. This year the company tried investing in “green” ventures to attract customers, by selling seafood only from sustainable fisheries and eco-friendly flower bouquets around Mother’s Day.

Sweetbay began as a conversion of the former Kash N’ Karry in 2004.

Bi-Lo Holdings is ranked as the country’s fastest growing retailer for 2013 by Stores, a publication put out by the National Retail Federation.

Photo by Chip Litherland, Herald-Tribune staff.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Ocean Harvest Grill & Bar, a seafood restaurant in Bradenton has closed its doors for good this week, citing management issues.

Executive chef Mark Baker posted on Facebook that the restaurant had closed, and sign that reads “Gone fishing” is currently posted in the establishment’s front window at 5718 Manatee Ave. W. Baker worked alongside celebrity chef, Roy Yamaguchi, at Roy’s restaurant in Honolulu before joining Ocean Harvest in 2010. The restaurant was owned by Mike Guccione and Ron Gauthier and served locally caught fresh fish and shellfish, along with smoked barbecue.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Wawa, a Pennsylvania-based convenience store chain, is one step closer to opening its first location south of Tampa Bay after a Bradenton planning commission approved its permit request Wednesday.

The gas station and convenience store chain has been aggressively expanding throughout Florida, with plans to open a dozen stores in the Orlando and Tampa markets in 2012 and into this year. Wawa is known for its cheap gas and restaurant-quality sandwich bar, fresh salads, breakfast bowls, signature coffees and smoothies, among other items not commonly seen at most major convenience stores.

The stores still carry traditional convenience store goods too, such as drinks, snacks and cigarettes.

Wawa submitted an application to the city of Bradenton on April 15 looking to build on the site of a former Eckerd Drugs store at 4455 State Road 64 in Bradenton, said Brady Woods, development services and zoning manager with the city of Bradenton. The planning commission approved the permit request, and now it is up to the Bradenton City Council to approve it.

Most Wawa locations range in size from 5,600 to 6,000 square feet.The company has locations in New Jersey Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania. The first Florida store opened in Orlando, and there are more than two dozen other stores in the works in Central Florida. Tampa too has several locations in the planning stages.

No announcements have been made about opening a Sarasota location yet.

Photo by Red Huber, Orlando Sentinel.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Shoppers’ perceptions on taste, calories and value are altered by what they read on the label, too, which researchers call “the health halo.”

The study recruited 115 shoppers in Ithaca, New York, and asked them to evaluate three pairs of products. One item in each food pair was labeled “regular” and and the other “organic” even though all the products were organic and identical. Shoppers were then asked to rate the taste and how much they would be willing to pay for the items they tried.

Results show that shoppers estimated that the organic offerings had fewer calories and were willing to pay up to 23.4 percent more for them.

For more shopping news in Southwest Florida, follow reporter Justine Griffin on Twitter and Facebook or email her at justine.griffin@heraldtribune.com. Read What’s In Store in print on Tuesdays.

Nokomis residents will soon be in supermarket limbo when the Publix store at 1091 N. Tamiami Trail, closes on March 30 for renovations.

Publix will open a brand new grocery store in the Nokomis area at Laurel and Pinebrook roads, but the opening date is expected to be sometime in late summer or early fall, confirmed Shannon Patten, Publix spokeswoman. All Publix employees from the 1091 Tamiami Trail store will transfer to surrounding Publix locations while the store is closed, she said.

The plan is to tear down the Tamiami Trail location and build a brand new 45,000-square-foot store from the ground up.

“Nokomis customers deserve a beautiful new Publix and we look forward to having that store open by the end of the year,” Patten said. “Once the new store is open, our associates will be able to transfer back to their original store, so our customers will see many familiar faces when they shop there.”

The next nearest open Publix location are three miles away in the Venice Commons plaza at 1445 E Venice Ave., or in the Venice Shopping Center at 535 South Tamiami Trail, both in Venice.